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Thinking Right with Jim Wooten

Meaningful ethics reform a must

8:44 pm January 28, 2010, by jwooten

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

● Bush. Bush. Bush. It’s all Bush’s fault. Man up, Mr. President. You own it now. You’re not a facilitator leading a government seminar, nor a deal-detached observer, with no responsibility for the Louisiana purchase of Sen. Mary Landrieu or the Cornhusker Kickback to Sen. Ben Nelson. If it’s bad, he inherited. If good, he did it.

● President Obama listened to those on the left in drafting his State of the Union. More government. More spending. More hyper-partisanship. More cap-and-tax. More health care cram-down. No move to the center. Another year of deep national divisions loom.

● State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver of DeKalb County uses the recent troubles of former House Speaker Glenn Richardson as opportunity to push a bill to limit the value of gifts from lobbyists to $25, which is fine with me. But she also leaps to propose public financing of judicial races. That’s incumbent-protection. A challenger should be able to raise the sum the public wants to give to oust a bad judge. (Incidentally, lawyers shouldn’t be allowed to introduce legislation that benefits judges.)

● Whether it’s $25, as Oliver proposes, or $100, as state Rep. Wendell Willard (R-Atlanta) proposes, the General Assembly does need to pass meaningful ethics legislation. Legislators should make it illegal, too, for them or their staff to ask lobbyists to pick up tabs of any sum for any purpose. Money is only a part of the influence problem. Lobbyists who can deliver phone banks and single-issue voters are just as influential as those who pick up the tabs.

● Good news, of a sort. Cooking equipment has been fixed and Clayton inmates now get two hot meals per day. Had they gone straight, they could get three hot meals a day. Or five, as their appetites dictated.

● The alarm bell goes off when gubernatorial candidates start attacking the Georgia Department of Revenue and specifically Commissioner Bart Graham for collecting too little revenue. Graham’s a straight arrow who’s competent and aggressive in getting the state its due. Except for its voice-mail hell, it’s a sound, well-run department. Some politicians don’t like him because of the attention he’s brought to the tax deadbeats in their ranks.

● OK. On state transportation and tax policy: Fix congestion. Fund traffic-congestion relief. Spend first where the most people are freed from gridlock. Honest cost-benefit analysis should determine spending priority. Most state transportation planning consists of giving something to every interest group in hopes of building support for a new tax. That’s absolutely the wrong way to go. No tax should be approved if it’s not buying immediate gridlock relief.

● Miep Gies, who died this month at 100, was a secretary who was among those who protected the family of Anne Frank for two years, for which she was honored repeatedly. “I don’t want to be considered a hero,” she said in 1997. “Imagine, young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary.” Miep Gies risked her life repeatedly. The sentiment expressed beautifully describes those who are heroes. In a similar vein, British actor Richard Todd, who died at 90 in early December, was a genuine hero, too. He was among the first British paratroopers dropped at Normandy. “You don’t consciously set out to do something gallant,” he said. “You just do it because that is what you are there for.”

● Elected officials who don’t pay their taxes should be banned from office. Only exception: a legitimate tax dispute. Legislators who refuse to take furloughs required of state employees should be voted out of office. Refusal is arrogant.

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40 comments Add your comment

Hank Williams Jr.

January 28th, 2010
9:00 pm

OBAMA NEEDS TO QUIT TRYING TO BE A COMEDIAN. THE ONLY THING FUNNY IS WHEN JOE AND NANCY WERE PRODDED ON THEIR A$$ AND LOOKED LIKE 2 BAFFONS JUMPING UP AND DOWN .
NOTHING IS FUNNY ABOUT THE JOB HE IS DOING.
IT’S PATHETIC.

hryder

January 28th, 2010
9:49 pm

Anyone who becomes President should be removed from office within one week of indicating that the problems faced were caused by previous administrations. That is self evident and is a waste of everyone’s time. Time that should and could be spent attempting to solve or alleviate the problems. Only Washington avoided inheriting previous administration’s problems. Quit making excuses and get to work.

Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 28th, 2010
10:58 pm

President Obama’s fundamental flaw is his misconception of the position of his loyal opposition. By excluding the republicans from every policy consideration, he has taught the republicans that “when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.” The republican leadership has been adroit in its Seinfeld strategy – “nothing” is a winner when the powers-that-be insist on their right to self-inflicted wounds.

I think “ethics” does not arise from rules; rules merely set the lowest floor, and never function effectively as a ceiling. Only “gotcha” lawsuits arise from rules. I would permit gifts up to $1 million, but would require transparency, disclosure.

Heck, I get only one meal per day. And I am gaining weight on that. Maybe ought to cut down to meals of less than 2,000 calories.

I have never found fault with a tax commissioner who collects too little.

Jim, your final note calls to mind the “Steve Martin Program to Never Pay Any Taxes Again.”

Dusty

January 28th, 2010
11:34 pm

Dear Jim Wooten,

You are correct in addressing ethics. Ethics reform is a must. We keep trying to remind politicians about the “right” things but some seem to forget in a furor of self indulgence. Politicians are human but no need for them to show us how far we can stray.

Thanks for mentioning Miep Gies who called herself “just an ordinary housewife and secretary”. I hope “ordinary” remains common bravery as it did with Miep Gies. There was a time when Americans kept that trait of essential compassion no matter what.. Now I wonder until I see young American soldiers fighting and dying, not only to protect us but to help liberate those who have little freedom. ” IT” is still there, the essential component of bravery fueled by human compassion.

And then Haiti, not exactly bravery, but certainly a tragedy to which Americans open their hearts and pocketbooks. My church denomination (Lutheran) alone gave 250 thousand $ immediately and promised 500 thousand more. Not to mention among other things, eleven thousand quilts being sent, quilts made by “lil ol’ lady” sewing groups around the USA . That is just one example of what millions of Americans are offering to the suffering Haitians.

So, thanks, Jim, for giving us the good and the bad, that which we need to retain or reinvent. You do it so well.

Dusty

January 28th, 2010
11:43 pm

Ragnar,

Didn’t see your post until I had just finished mine. I worry about you . ONLY ONE MEAL A DAY???? Won’t they feed you down in Florida? Get youself back to Atlanta!!

Good to see your views on politics. Yes, ethics may not do any good but we keep trying!!!

A tax commissioner who collects too little??? Now that’s a strange bird indeed. I thought they were extinct.

Mid-South Philosopher

January 29th, 2010
5:30 am

Good morning, Jim,

While I agree that the economy is now Barrack Obama’s “baby”, I do note that former Senator and then Minority Leader Bob Dole, an American hero worthy of our respect, insisted on referring to the economy during the first two and one-half years of the Clinton Presidency as “the Bush” economy…giving credit, rightly so, to George Herbert Walker Bush. While the errors of the past year are President Obama’s alone, “Georgie” W. Bush has a lot to answer for (with respect to legacy) for his total incompetent at handling of the American economy during his reign. Of course, “Georgie” is a “corporatist”, i.e., a “capitalistic communist”, but it will be some years before historians put him in his proper negative perspective.

Ethics for members of the Georgia General ASSembly…you have to be kidding. That bunch wouldn’t know an “ethic” if it walked up and shook hands!

As far as candidates for political office, I ask them to see it. No tax receipt, no vote!

The seven members of the General ASSembly, who failed to take the furlough days…with the exception of Ed Harbison of Columbus, who finally ponied up and directed that his pay should be docked, the rest should be “permanently furloughed” come the election in November!

Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 29th, 2010
6:31 am

Dear Dusty, I always enjoy reading your thoughts. Quite the opposite of your perception, the meals down here are massive. Must be a Cuban thing. I have never had weight issues in my life, but I gained 15 pounds the first month down here last spring. All I can do to get back to my fighting weight.

Dear MidSouth, As always I enjoy your notes, but….”Bob Dole, an American hero worthy of our respect, insisted on referring to the economy during the first two and one-half years of the Clinton Presidency as “the Bush” economy…giving credit, rightly so, to George Herbert Walker Bush” My best recollection is that such a reference would not have been “credit” but disparagement (”It’s the economy, stupid!”)? In all fairness, to all pols, “credit” can only go where there is government restraint. Governments cannot create jobs, but they certainly can destroy them. Thus the deterioration in our economy beginning around one year after our leftist friends took over the Congress in 2006. And the deterioration in the economy around one year after President Bush signed onto the democrat tax increases in 1990 (”read my lips – pfpfpfpfpfpf”). And the recoveries that began Jan 1983 and Jan 2002 when the Reagan and Bush tax cuts kicked in.

Will

January 29th, 2010
8:29 am

Mr. Wooten:

Here is a little interesting, somewhat trival but very revealing tibit about “ethics” reform in the Georgia General Assembly.

Have you wondered why it would make any difference if the lobby limit on favors is set at $25.00 or $100.00?
With members receiving almost $200.00 a day above their salary for meals and travel, why do they so desparately need to hold on to free meals?

I have so I asked my representative. His response was that it made no difference to him and had nothing to do with free meals. The problem was UGA football tickets! A limit of $25.00 wipes outs a football ticket to UGA games!!

Says alot about the sincerity of “ethics” reform doesn’t it.

Na'Tricianna Ma'Khayvighnon Philpot

January 29th, 2010
8:35 am

Ragnar, if you don’t watch your weight, the men won’t watch you.

The Ghost of Harry S. Truman

January 29th, 2010
8:39 am

How come the almighty AJC never discloses, in any stories which crucify lobbyists, who the registered lobbyists are for Cox Enterprises, to whom they give money, and how much?

Barry

January 29th, 2010
9:04 am

Perhaps it’s impolite to point it out, but did anyone happen to notice that every single one of the lawmakers who refused to take the furlough day – all seven of them – are black? With blacks making up such a small percentage of state lawmakers, how is that even statistically possible?

Cutty

January 29th, 2010
9:10 am

I watched the replay of W’s first State of the Union last night where he blamed the recession on Clinton, and “had come on behalf of the American people asking for a refund.” Every president of recent memory has done it except George Bush Sr. I’m sure Wooten wasn’t yelling that ‘you own it’ crap when W. took office. And based on the fact that republicans are all of a sudden interested in deficits, I’d rightly call them out on all the spending they did before I took office too.

Aquagirl

January 29th, 2010
9:24 am

Eh, I’ll give Obama a pass for saying he inherited a bad economy, it’s not like the thing collapsed after he took office. The crazy Holland tulip bulb-like speculation of the housing industry went on for years while everyone ignored the problem. You can’t un-build excessive housing.

@ Rag, try this phrase: “no mas, por favor.”

Morrus

January 29th, 2010
9:28 am

Vote out the incumbents and start over.

Jaye

January 29th, 2010
9:46 am

Voters, taxpayers and media must keep hammering lawmakers on passing strong ethics legislation. Otherwise, it won’t happen. Ga. lawmakers have become proficient at good talk-up but have a poor record on action of laws that make a difference to taxpayers. They pass bills if they are “appropriately lobbied.” Cronyism and corruption are just under the radar at the state house and in state offices.

jconservative

January 29th, 2010
10:56 am

Jim I disagree with you on the Obama speech. What I heard and read was that he is going to do exactly like Reagan, cut taxes and allow spending to go through the roof. He cut taxes in the 2009 and wants to cut taxes in 2010. He allowed spending to increase in 2009 and wants to allow spending to increase again in 2010.

That is exactly what Reagan did and that is why we are in the fiscal mess we are in today.

James

January 29th, 2010
11:25 am

Jim you on spot on except for two point. First, elected officials who don’t pay their taxes should remain if WE the people decied they should be in offce. Second, to cap whether a citizen wants to pay for a politicians meal is to cap free speech and limit expression.. what kinda liberal crap are you espousing today? So next week, they cant meet in private?

John Galt

January 29th, 2010
12:11 pm

I’m sorry, but I can’t share your good opinion of Bart Graham. He’s not only stupid and incompetent, but he has the personality of a hornet to boot. And, yes, I know him personally.

Graham wasted 2.1 million dollars of the State’s money when it was most needed. He needlessly antagonizes people when a more positive, tactful approach would work better. And, most tellingly, he has blindly followed the Republican mantra of “privatization” and thereby removed all of the people who really knew how to collect taxes. He’s very proud of the numbers of employees he’s fired and laid off, considering that all State employees are dead wood. Some certainly are, but I can tell him from years of experience that the “enforcement arm” of the Revenue department, most of whom are now long gone, was competent and professional prior to his term.

A recent study showed hundreds of non-Sales tax collecting businesses in Hall County, and there are certainly many more in other more heavily populated counties, but Graham has no way of knowing anything about that because he’s run off all the agents who used to go and check all the businesses in their assigned area. This first and second level field agent has been completely replaced by private collection agencies, who do no collecting at all beyond working automatic telephone dialers.

First step in helping rescue the State’s budget- replace “Black Bart.”

Hillbilly Deluxe

January 29th, 2010
12:25 pm

Elected officials who don’t pay their taxes should be banned from office. Only exception: a legitimate tax dispute. Legislators who refuse to take furloughs required of state employees should be voted out of office. Refusal is arrogant.

Agreed.

Whether it’s $25, as Oliver proposes, or $100, as state Rep. Wendell Willard (R-Atlanta) proposes, the General Assembly does need to pass meaningful ethics legislation.

How about $0?

What an incredible person Miep Gies was.

The Diary of Anne Frank

January 29th, 2010
1:24 pm

“You don’t consciously set out to do something gallant,” he said. “You just do it because that is what you are there for.”

The Diary of Anne Frank has sold 25 million copies. The Catcher in the Rye has sold 65 million copies.

There are no heroes because reality is too scary. We only live in fiction. Holden Caulfield is a hero to more people than anyone who protected Anne Frank.

The movie, “Bridge at Toko Ri”. William Holden tells Mickey Rooney that there’s no hero. There’s no right or wrong. You fight because you’re there to fight. It’s how old soldiers just fade away. They don’t ask for parades.

Reagan talked about his heroism in “Hellcats of the Navy” once during a speech. The Tea Party sugar-coats Reagan into the greatest president ever. The Tea Party will take their lumps soon enough.

Miep Gies was a very incredible person. Love + courage = Miep Gies.

Haywood Jablome

January 29th, 2010
2:17 pm

Stating the economic facts at the time one takes office is not placing blame. Don’t be so sensitive to the truth.

Bookkeeper

January 29th, 2010
3:55 pm

In addition to the ‘voice mail hell” at the Georgia Department of Revenue, in the last month or so, the online Sales & Use Tax filing procedure doesn’t work anymore. And, because of the voice mail hell, you can’t reach anyone to find out how to correct your filing. They can talk about all the businesses that are supposedly not filing the S&U collections, but they also need to look at the procedure for doing so. There is another explanation as to why there is a shortfall of S&U revenue.

Ray

January 29th, 2010
4:33 pm

Hey Barry, do you think you would have brought that up if all of them were white….

John Galt

January 29th, 2010
4:47 pm

I forgot to mention Deputy Commissioner Ed Many. He’s another one just like Bart. Deputy Commissioner Mack Chandler is however a pretty good guy.

Chris Broe

January 29th, 2010
11:47 pm

Correct assessments abound here. Great points made by all.

Even if it was Bush’s fault, Obama needs to be a leader and just sail our ship of state as our captain.

We all know what Bush did. It’s redundant to even mention it, and it’s bothersome that Obama is still going there.

I want a leader in the white house. Someone who accepts the key to the executive washroom without asking if the last guy in there left the seat up.

Report All the News

January 30th, 2010
7:53 am

When reporting on state law makers who refused to take furlough days, not a single local television station reported that they were ALL democrats. I just watched the Saturday morning recap and again that fact was omitted. Had they been republicans, that would have been the lead story. And numerous bloggers have mentioned that the lawmakers were all African Americans. How can those comments be considered racist when they are simply stating a fact? Using the racism charge to suppress the truth is a tired and old argument.

The continued liberal bias in the news sickens me. The ’silent majority’ of conservatives won’t be so silent come election time.
Independents from Massachusets to Virginia have seen through all the smoke and mirrors of this administration and a reckoning is coming.

JohnD

January 30th, 2010
9:42 am

Ah Jim, how soon you forget that you spend the years between 2001 and 2008 saying that all of W’s problems were Clinton’s fault.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot…it looks like you can dish it out, but you cannot take it.

Is it any wonder that most Americans do not consider themseleves either a dem or repub? We are not as stupid as the partisan hacks in Congress, or on the AJC editorial board.

Chris Broe

January 30th, 2010
9:44 am

GroungHog Day.

The mechanical marmot. The I-hog?

The robotic groundhog can predict cold better than granny’s knee. It can predict rain better than grandpa’s toe.

And it plays Abba tunes!

Chris Broe

January 30th, 2010
10:10 am

“Clayton inmates now get two hot meals per day. Had they gone straight, they could get three hot meals a day”

Warden Wooten and his all-hoagie concurrent sentence!

Just how many prison mess hall riots will we have to endure? Somebody yell, “Attica!”

Chris Broe

January 30th, 2010
10:16 am

“Lobbyists who can deliver phone banks and single-issue voters are just as influential as those who pick up the tabs.”

Like those lobbyists who pick up the check at a restaurant? I know you didn’t just suggest they be limited to two hot meals per day.

Oh no you din’t!

Chris Broe

January 30th, 2010
10:41 am

“Fix congestion. Fund traffic-congestion relief. Spend first where the most people are freed from gridlock. No tax should be approved if it’s not buying immediate gridlock relief.”

Look, when I was younger, I got stuck in a lot of bumper car rides where everyone gets all jammed-up together and the time expires before you can untangle, too, but that doesn’t make me a traffic meister.

I hated last summer.

Michael H. Smith

January 30th, 2010
10:55 am

From the New York Daily the headline reads President Obama slams obstructionist Republicans at GOP issues retreat

Snippet

He skewered Republicans for obstructionist tactics, dubious facts and a lack of civility in opposing his domestic agenda, especially health care reform.

“If you were to listen to the debate and, frankly, how some of you went after this bill, you’d think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot,” Obama told the GOP issues retreat after unveiling a proposal for $33 billion in small-business tax incentives.

End

Unfortunately, given the decorum of the Republican retreat adequate response was not given a representative for the conservative voice. This quote from Thomas Jefferson is at the heart in the healthcare debate of what President Obama terms the portrayal of a Bolshevik Plot.

“The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.”

Points of open inquiry of our right good honorable President in the interests of serving civility:

Is it the view or suggestion of our right honorable President that his and his loyal Democrats healthcare plans will not grow the size, scope and powers of the government?

Is it the suggestion of our right honorable President and his loyal Democrats that liberty is not indeed being sacrificed at the cost of expanding the role of government and the power of government in the healthcare bill intrusively over the everyday lives of the citizenry, for what liberty exists under compulsion that threatens with penalty the freedom of choice that does not comply to government mandate?

Would the right honorable President and his loyal Democrats not concede that even members of his own Party of less radical ideology in fact obstruct various parts of this bill and his agenda of change in transforming not reforming America under redistributive wealth for many of the same reasons as those raised by the loyal Republican opposition?

Would the right honorable President and his loyal Democrats not consider why some should go after this bill and his agenda or see them as a valid threat to liberty giving way to one more piece of a piecemeal attempt to implementing a clever revolution of the omnipotent state that shares semblances with the Bolsheviks?

Is it the resolve of the right honorable President and his loyal Democrats that defending the smallness of liberty or the smallest conceivable aspect of it is serving obstruction for the shake of political gainsay rather than honest regards for protecting liberty and the Republic?

Tall

January 30th, 2010
11:05 am

To the Ghost of Harry Truman:

The Georgia State Ethics commission has a website that lists all of the lobbyists in Georgia. It also lists who they are lobbying for and how much they get paid. It is interesting.

Hillbilly Deluxe

January 30th, 2010
1:34 pm

I want a leader in the white house. Someone who accepts the key to the executive washroom without asking if the last guy in there left the seat up.

Chris, that’s the best line you’ve had in quite some time.

Dusty

January 30th, 2010
3:25 pm

Yes, Chris Broe,

That was a good line in several ways. As an after thought, no need to ask about the upward state of a certain seat. Yup, it’s up! (This conclusion was reached after the pure joy of raising four young gentlemen, not to mention their father!! )

Barry

January 30th, 2010
10:07 pm

Say, Ray, guess you missed my reference to the statistics involved. If all of the legislators refusing to take the furlough days had been white, it wouldn’t have been statistically notable. But 100 percent of the legislators keeping the money are black, even though black lawmakers make up just 23 percent of the legislature. If you see another statistically significant correlation, please point it out.

Shar

February 1st, 2010
11:05 am

The limit on lobbyist contributions should be simple: If all of a politician’s constituents are getting a benefit, the pol should too. Otherwise, nothing. The fact that we elect a person to represent us does not entitle that person to extra goodies. If all of our utility rates go down, so should theirs. But if a lobbyist is not prepared to take every single constituent to lunch, the politician should have to brown bag it along with the rest of us.

Bart Graham is, indeed, a straight arrow and inherently tough and humorless, which are attractive qualities in a tax collector. However, his offhand estimate that at least 5% and not more than 10% of state sales taxes are uncollected is both unacceptable and shocking. His seeming casualness about collecting those millions makes me question his qualification for the office he holds.

Thinking Left

February 2nd, 2010
9:40 pm

OBAMA IS LEADING US DOWN THE ROAD TO NO RETURN

retiredds

February 3rd, 2010
12:38 pm

Jim, same old same old, Democrats bad Republicans good. I am truly hoping that the Republicans will get control of one of the houses of Congress this year as then they will have to finally propose solutions and act upon them rather than standing on the sidelines pointing fingers at everyone else than themselves. Oops I forgot, concrete thinkers can only see good/bad, black/white, and need scapegoats to blame.

past perfect

February 15th, 2010
8:14 pm

Cutty was right. Wooten needs to refresh our memories if he brought up the ownership question at the time of W’s statement about the problems he inherited from Bill Clinton. It seems the Republicans think about a year into Obamas term is the right place to start denying the 8 years of Bush Cheney even happened. Maybe they think we forgot who led us to this place. Man up, indeed.